Deafness Critique Scholarly Articles - Essay Example

In total 19 children participated in the study from which 10 were females and 9 males, aged 12-14 years. Children included in the study had binaural, sensori-neural severe to profound hearing loss. Children with hearing loss often have difficulties acquiring spoken language, vocabulary problems and reading comprehension deficits. Their voice and speech features disturb their speech intelligibility, which in turn disrupts their functioning in various areas such as communication skills, academic success and social behaviour.

Spoken language deficits represent an enormous impediment for the construction of social relationships; likewise academic success may be affected because of reduced participation in the classroom. Children with hearing loss have difficulties to communicate with their teacher and hearing peers; in fact, students who are more skilful in their spoken language integrate better than their less skilled counterparts. The article examines socio-emotional characteristics of inclusion showing its relevance when educators are request to approach their students with disabilities in an efficient manner.

A suitable educational program which fulfils the requirements of children with disabilities may help them to achieve optimal academic and social benefits. The investigator studied the relationship between speech intangibility in the context of group inclusion and individual inclusion. Group inclusion refers to special classes within regular schools; and individual inclusion refers to individuals integrated into regular classes with only hearing peers. Results of the study concerning emotional and social feelings of children with hearing loss, revealed no significant difference for either, sense of loneliness or sense of coherence between children in the two educational settings.

These results are in line with the outcomes from other studies which reported similar findings indicating that increased loneliness experience and academic failure or educational setting are not related. Indeed, the report of such socio-emotional feelings is intrinsic to the disability itself and to the experience of living with disabilities. Comparable to other children at risk for learning disabilities, children with hearing loss feel different from the rest of the group having deepest sense of loneliness and lower coherence.

On the other hand the study showed a significant difference in relation to the score of speech intelligibility and the environment that surrounds the child. In group inclusion setting children had lower speech intelligibility score than did children in individual inclusion setting. On this respect the possibility to rely solely on spoken language makes the difference; children in group inclusion probably use simultaneously communication skills which are different from speech. Moreover, children attending individual inclusion at school rated by their peers as having better speech intelligibility reported less loneliness and more coherence.

Bearing in mind that good speech intelligibility is used as criteria to include a child in one setting or another, cause-effect interaction should also be deliberated when considering these results. Inclusion involves modifications in the regular classroom to accommodate all different learners, offering special services to meet the needs of all children within the regular classroom. In an inclusive setting the educator has the primary responsibility for teaching